A MULTI-MILLION pound revamp of the Holme Valley Memorial Hospital is set to go ahead, it has been announced.

The £2m overhaul of the Hawthorne Ward has already been given the green-light and Kirklees health bosses hope a £4.5m conversion of the ageing Maple Ward will be sanctioned at a crucial NHS meeting later this month.

Plans to upgrade the facilities had been approved in June 2007, but when projected costs passed the £1m threshold Kirklees PCT bosses were forced to shelve plans and refer the decision to the NHS’s Strategic Health Authority.

Kirklees PCT community hospitals programme project director, James Drury, said it was clear that better access to diagnostic tests such as x-ray, blood and ultra-sound were needed and that consultation work was underway to devise which of these facilities could be practically and economically implemented.

Mr Drury also said a minor wound unit was not part of the plan for the facility but said there would be an opportunity to look at all options in a project workshop with stakeholders such as NHS staff, the League of Friends, councillors and patients all involved.

It was also confirmed that there were no plans for a maternity unit.

If given the go ahead, building work could start next year with completion in 2010.

Meanwhile, the Hawthorne Ward work, part of the £13.8m Kirklees community hospital programme, is set to begin next month and is due to open next January.

A project spokesman from consultants Turner and Townsend said the ward would be refurbished, extended and updated and the number of single rooms and en-suite facilities would be increased.

“It’s funded, it’s coming,” the spokesman added.

The spokesman also moved to ease fears that the revamp was a private development stating that NHS capital had been reserved and that it was being built by the PCT.

Clr Ken Sims, Kirklees cabinet member for regeneration, said: “I’m really happy that we’re starting to get some of the services back, not all that I would like, but some.”

Holme Valley parish councillor, Judith Roberts, said: “I’m extremely pleased that we’re going to be investing in this hospital and that it will be available to people from all over the valleys. But we do need an effective bus service if this hospital is going to used.”

Clr Donald Firth said he had met Metro and was pleased to announce that a new hourly Holme Valley bus route serving the hospital would be launched in July.

The service will run a circular route to include Jackson Bridge and New Mill and would link in with First Bus services operating out of Holmfirth bus station.